Sep 10, 2019

Adobe Create Tutorial – Neon Effect in Photoshop

I’ve created neon effects before but that was just for outlining other images to add something to it and make it “pop” a little. This simple tutorial (it really is the easiest one I’ve done) uses a similar technique but uses a little masking as well to make the overall effect look more realistic on the image.

Here’s the before stock image:

rendition;size=2357;.jpg

This is my finished edit:

The adobe tutorials are also really good for beginners because they usually provide the stock photos for you for free as long as you’re only using them for this tutorial. But isn’t it amazing how a simple masking effect using blend modes in Photoshop can create something quite cool. I’ve always wanted to learn this technique ever since I first saw it used in a graphic design poster on Pinterest. And now I know how it’s done!

Website: https://create.adobe.com/2019/7/12/how_to_create_a_neon.html

Time: 5 minutes

Level: Beginner

Comment: I can’t really say anything bad about the Adobe tutorials other than they do move really fast through the techniques so if you’re just starting out, be ready to pause a lot as you go. But these tutorials are made with beginners in mind and they do advance in level as well so you know that you’re not biting off more than you can chew. The added bonus is there is a video clip to watch if you learn better that way or you can follow along step by step with the written instructions.

Rating: 10/10

Aug 20, 2019

Tutorial reviews are proving to be a taxing experience

As you know, one of the things I love to do on my blog is tutorial reviews of Adobe products, mostly using Photoshop but I plan to venture out into other areas as well including Illustrator and Adobe After Effects (assuming I can find tutorials that work).

Well, I had two tutorial reviews all lined up to do, and I spent so much time trying to find assets for these particular tutorials that I ended up not doing anything at all. I was extremely frustrated, to say the least. The reason why this process is so frustrating is because a lot of the tutorials I choose are older tutorials where the assets used to make the end product are no longer available. This makes it a much more taxing experience and particularly time consuming which is the most annoying part. Trying to find matching images that will look as good in the end result is much more difficult than you would think, and when you finally do find the right image, you can’t use it for free, you have to pay for it.

So for now, my edits will have to do until I can find a tutorial I can actually review on the Adobe site or via Design Tuts.

Here’s a quick edit I did of Kylo Ren from The Last Jedi taken from the Topps trading card Chrome Edition – you would be amazed at how beautiful some of the Topps cards are, although this one I’m pretty sure is just a screenshot of Adam Driver from the film

My Edit:

And the original image:

Jun 17, 2019Jun 29, 2019

Design Tuts Plus Tutorial – How to Create a Frozen Winter Adobe Photoshop Effect Action

So remember when I was complaining about not being able to find the stock photo I wanted for the tutorial I was going to do? Well, I did a workaround and while it’s not perfect, it’s as close as it’s going to get bar having to pay for stock photos. And while I am all for supporting photographers and artists for their work, I am not quite at the stage where I’ll pay for every image I use to create things. Some people may not agree with this, and that’s fine, but that’s how it is for now.

So onto the tutorial. This is what your image should look like at the end:

You’ll notice that the image is not precisely the same image as the example in the tutorial and to me, it seems like the head was photoshopped onto a different body and I don’t know why that would happen. But moving on, I managed to work through this tutorial, and while I am not 100 per cent happy with my result, I think it looks good enough to move onto the tutorial critique.

How to Create a Frozen Winter Adobe Photoshop Effect Action

Firstly, I enjoyed this tutorial because I never felt like it was going to be too challenging to finish. Sometimes you can feel overwhelmed by tutorials with a lot of steps, but I didn’t really feel that way with this tutorial. It is quite lengthy so be aware you’ll need some time to work through it if you decide to do it yourself.

Website: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/frozen-winter-photoshop-effect-action–cms-29724

Time: 30 – 45 minutes

Level: Beginner to intermediate level

Comment: Layer information was available which is extremely helpful when you’re trying to follow along and match your steps to the steps in the tutorial

Rating: 8.5/10

Here is my edit (do you see what I mean about the head?)

A fairly decent tutorial if you want to learn how to make snow in Photoshop – something I had never done before and it’s a good tutorial for learning how to use layers and masks as there is a lot of this (and I do mean a lot!)

Jun 16, 2019Jun 29, 2019

Design Tuts Plus Tutorial – How to create a Mezzopop Mezotint Effect in Adobe Photoshop

To make up for lost time yesterday, I just spent about 15 minutes learning how to apply the mezzotint effect through a Photoshop Action to this image:

And this is what it should look like once completed:

It was pretty easy, but if you’re not accustomed to using photoshop actions, I would suggest reading up on what actions are and how you can use them in your photoshop edits. Here is a great write-up about photoshop actions from Adobe.

How to Create a Photoshop Action to create a Photo Art Effect

Website: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-glow-in-the-dark-effect–cms-31254

Time: 15 minutes

Level: Beginner but read my notes below regarding asset images and photoshop actions

Comment: Layer information missing for beginners – screenshots from inside Photoshop showing the layers would be most helpful for beginners starting out with Actions

Rating: 7.5/10

If you’re used to using photoshop actions, you’ll find this tutorial a breeze and the end result is pretty cool. Here’s my finished edit:

MEZZOTINT ACTION.png

The nice thing about this tutorial other than it being quite easy to complete, is that most of the images for the tutorial were quite helpful. The only comment I can make from a beginner’s perspective is that there are no screencaps of the layers inside Photoshop and therefore, you kind of have to guess your way around what layer is what. For an absolute beginner, I could imagine this would be a little confusing.

The tutorial is here if you want to check it out. The other thing worth mentioning is that you actually get to create your own action – something I haven’t done as yet. So it was nice to actually learn how to do that which I can now apply to any edits or graphics I create going forward if I want to create my own image effects.

Regarding the stock image, I did a bit of a work-around for this which I don’t recommend. If you can’t find an alternative image online, your only choice is to purchase the image from stock or to supply your own for the tutorial.

Jun 7, 2019Jun 29, 2019

Design Tuts Plus Tutorial – Fantasy Sci Fi Photo Manip Tutorial Review

So as mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to show you how far I had come on my first Photo Manipulation image. I have not used half the tools I had to use in Photoshop to create the picture, which is why it took me a lot longer than it would someone who already had prior knowledge of these tools. You could say this was a good learning curve for me, and it was steep, but I think I got over it, OK.

The artist who created this image is a digital artist who writes tutorials for a lot of the more prominent Photoshop tutorial websites. Here is her DeviantArt webpage if you’re interested. Her work is just sublime as you can see here:

eef87830645519.562cf4cab1baa

I decided to take on this project, not knowing just how involved it can be to create a photo manipulation of this type. There are a lot, and I do mean a LOT of steps to get to the end of it, but it’s so worth it if you’re learning as you go, which I definitely am.

So for anyone that hasn’t seen it, here is my photomanip:

FIRSTFANTASYSCIFIATTEMPT3